What's the most exciting - and far-reaching - advance in gardening today? It's the growing appreciation and use of native (indigenous) plants in home and commercial landscapes. The native plant movement has been around for thirty years, and has been finding acceptance all over the country. For many good common-sense reasons:

• Heading the list is water conservation. Plants that are native to where you live have been growing there successfully for millennia. They are well-adapted to your growing conditions: soil, temperatures, and annual rainfall. Natives can exist on rainfall alone. This type of gardening is called xeriscaping.
• Garden pests - which account for a mere 1 % of all insects in a typical garden - are no problem. Beneficial, predator insects (praying mantises, lacewings, ladybugs, etc) handle them easily and eliminate the need for toxic chemicals, which kill both pests and beneficial insects alike!
• Native landscapes are also havens for many species of wildlife (songbirds, butterflies, etc). The main cause of dwindling wildlife populations of wildlife is loss of habitats. A valuable bonus is allowing our children to grow up with nature literally in their front and backyards.
• Another major benefit: native gardening is low-maintenance gardening.

By contrast, the typical lawn-centered landscape is a water-guzzling, chemically dependent, high-maintenance burden that takes far more from us than it gives back.
 

		Every so often, someone conducts a survey to determine the least respected professions. Way up there, along with politicians, used car salesmen, lawyers and pimps, you’ll find…advertising! Still, it’s a long jump from fudging the truth about a product of dubious value to being called a “murderer!” Yet that’s exactly what a mysterious email accuses our hero, adman Ben Shilling, of being. Check out Andy Wasowski's hilarious new novel here... Sellin' the Sizzle
			7 gardening books   the lawn care industry   will never endorse! Fed Up with Mowing? Had it with Rising Water Bills? Bored with Homogenized Landscapes? Concerned about Pesticides? Botanical Missionaries, preaching the good news about native plants   Meet Garden Authors:   Sally & Andy   Wasowski